Special Operations Forces Arctic Medic (SOFAM) 2025 was recently held at Fort Wainwright, Alaska, bringing together over 100 combat medics from 30 different organizations, including two partner nations. The exercise aimed to train medics how to operate in arctic conditions, an environment that is unforgiving to say the least.
"The sub-freezing and Arctic environment is just as violent to a casualty as enemy fire," explained Senior Chief Hospital Corpsman Wayne Papalski, who is the tactical medicine senior enlisted leader assigned to Naval Special Warfare Group Two. "Equally, the environment is always working against you as a provider; from your gear, treatment, performance, as well as your own health," he said.
SOFAM 2025 takes place with the knowledge that Special Operations Forces have been fighting and training to fight in desert environments for twenty years. In the sub-zero temperatures, teams of combat medics were tested on their ability to evaluate and evacuate a casualty.
The medics had to learn how to pack the casualty into a litter and then drag them on skis across the snow, for instance. The simulated casualty would then be hoisted aboard a Black Hawk helicopter.
Army trauma surgeon Lt. Col. Maxwell Sirkin explained what the medics needed to understand when operating in such austere conditions. "First, they need to acclimate to living in the cold, surviving in the cold and being comfortable in the cold," he said. "Second, they need to be able to alter their clinical practice guidelines slightly to do less interventions at times and instead focus on heat production and generation."
Lessons learned from SOFAM 2025 are to be integrated into future training events as Special Operations Forces anticipate the arctic to be a region they will have to deploy to in the future.